By LINDSAY WHITEHURST (Associated Press)
WASHINGTON (AP) — Recent FBI numbers indicate that overall violent crime in the US decreased again last year, continuing a downward trend following a spike during the pandemic.
According to the FBI data released this week, murders decreased by 13% in the last three months of 2023 compared to the same period the previous year, and overall violent crime went down by 6%.
While property crime also decreased by about 3% nationwide, it increased by a similar amount in the Northeast and in major cities with over a million people.
The report released on Tuesday is based on data from about 80% of law enforcement agencies in the country, and detailed data for 2023 is expected to be released in the fall.
President Joe Biden mentioned that the decrease in the murder rate was one of the sharpest in the country's history. He stated that the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, passed in 2021 by a Democratic-led Congress and signed by Biden, allowed cities and states to invest $15 billion on public safety.
Attorney General Merrick Garland described the data as encouraging and highlighted law enforcement efforts to combat gangs, illegal guns, and other issues.
The FBI's report aligns with the findings of the nonpartisan Council on Criminal Justice, which found that homicides decreased by an average of 10% in a survey of 32 cities compared to the previous year, although violent crime remained higher than before the coronavirus pandemic in many cities.
Homicides had a substantial 29% increase in 2020, the largest one-year jump since the FBI began keeping records. The rise was difficult to explain, although experts pointed to factors such as the significant disruption of the pandemic, gun violence, economic concerns, and intense stress.
Crime seemed to stay consistent the following year, but a reorganization of record collection at the FBI meant that many major cities were not included in the report for that year.
FBI data indicated that violent crime across the US decreased in 2022, almost returning to pre-pandemic levels, although property crimes increased that year.
